An announcement of a good monsoon was made recently. This has rekindled the hopes of a good kharif, with the seed industry optimistic of good sales. On an expectation scale, keeping in consideration the pandemic, the sales of cotton, soybean and maize seed is expected to be good, while sales of vegetable seed would be lower than usual.

Covid19 has caused a lockdown-induced migration that has given rise to Labour issues. This is the main reason for a lower than usual sales of vegetable seeds in this kharif season.

In the last season, cotton and soybean traded much above their government-declared minimum support price (MSP). Therefore, farmers are expected to increase acreage of these two crops in the coming season.

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Dr Ram Kaundinya, director-general of the Federation of Seed Industries of India (FSII), said that they (FSII) feel that India’s cotton acreage would see a rise. In parallel, a similar rise would be seen in soybean acreage as the oilseed had also seen good returns for the farmer.

India sees sales of 4-4.5 lakh packets of cotton seed, on an average. Around 12 lakh tonnes of soybean seeds is necessary for the country’s seed requirement. As prices had dipped, Maize seed sales had increased by around 10 percent last season. Vegetable crops are expected to be a troublesome issue, as labour troubles & shortages are expected in the fields.

Dr. Kaundinya said, “On an average, the country’s seed requirement for maize is between 1-1.5 lakh tonnes and this year, chances are that the sales would come back to their normal levels.”

Adding the point related to issues with vegetable crops, Dr. Kaundinya said, “Last year, during the lockdown vegetable farmers had complained of labour problems due to the lockdown. As the lockdown returns, we feel that farmers would stay away from vegetable crops in fear of labour and market losses.”

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HYVs or the higher-yielding variety hybrids, marketed by MNCs have mainly cornered the market of vegetable seeds. The genetically modified BT cotton comprises more than 98 percent of the cotton seeds sold in the country. In the wake of the second wave of the pandemic, the lockdowns are making a strong come back in various parts of the country. As a result, the seed industry is working closely with the state governments to ensure that the logistics are not affected. But, the clouds of doubts are lingering over the market, due to the three farm laws passed last year, which are being protested by the farmers. Last year, the industry was caught unaware by the ill-conceived, unplanned, & worst-imposed lockdown. Seed manufacturers had also faced difficulties in seed certification and packaging, in various parts of the country.

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On coordination with government, Dr. Kaundinya said, “We are closely working with the government to ensure that the placement of seed is not affected.”

Cotton seeds required in northern part of the country have already reached the village-level shops. In the northern parts of the country, around 90 lakh packets of seed that are required by the northern states sales, is almost over.

It remains to be seen how far the optimism of the seed-market will pan out in the agriculture-market, during & after the monsoon, keeping in consideration the impacts of the pandemic and the sub-surface fears with respect to the contentious farm laws.